


Back To Normal

by Warp5Complex_Archivist



Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-04-26
Updated: 2006-04-25
Packaged: 2018-08-16 05:08:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 25
Words: 20,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8088493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Warp5Complex_Archivist/pseuds/Warp5Complex_Archivist
Summary: A disaster for the Enterprise as they not only crash on an unknown planet but discover a betrayal from within. (11/16/2004)





	1. Back To Normal

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Kylie Lee, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Warp 5 Complex](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Warp_5_Complex), the software of which ceased to be maintained and created a security hazard. To make future maintenance and archive growth easier, I began importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in August 2016. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but I may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Warp 5 Complex collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/Warp5Complex).

"Commander" he said gently "Sir." Michael Rostov gently nudged his commanding officer, who had fallen asleep at his desk for the second time today. "Sir" he said more abruptly and louder this time, shaking him by the shoulder.

Trip mumbled something in his sleep, which sounded extremely like "Leave me alone, I didn't do nuthin."

Mike's efforts at waking the Chief Engineer hadn't gone unnoticed among the rest of the staff in the vacinity. He heard footsteps behind him, and looked round to see who they belonged to. They belonged to Ensign Jennifer James, someone he'd been avoiding for close to a month now, as had most of the rest of the crew, excluding Commander Tucker of course as he was also receiving the shunning treatment.

No-one knew exactly what had happened when the two engineers had disappeared, or when the away team had gone down to the surface of the planet they were orbiting to investigate. Not even the away team themselves, as their memories had been wiped of the entire incident. Trip and Jennifer claimed to also be suffering from amnesia, but most people had their doubts about the truth in this, especially as the Captain himself seemed to hold those doubts too.

Mike however was grateful at this stage to receive help from anyone who was willing to give it. Commander Tucker was ten minutes late for a status meeting, and he knew he'd get the blame if he was late, he had been the one who'd taken the message. He was however unprepared for what happened next.

Jennifer strode up to them and standing just to Mike's right, slightly behind Commander Tucker, and slapped his head sharply from the back of his neck upwards, ruffling his hair up in the process, and clearly said "Upsy daisy Charlie boy this isn't a slumber party." Then strode off purposely back to the station she had been working at, leaving in her wake a stunned and opened mouthed Ensign and a very pissed off Chief Engineer.

The Chief Engineer in question had tried to sit up quickly and had smacked the top of his head on one of the bars sectioning off his little office from the rest of engineering, and a stream of unrepeatable language was now issuing from his mouth.

He sat up, more carefully this time, and blinked away the stars in front of his eyes. He swivelled round in his chair, a murderous glint in his eye.

"Sir..." Mike began, but Trip cut him off by holding up his hand.

"Not now Ensign." He said and strode over to where Jennifer had resumed working, but he didn't get too far.

"Sir" Mike had place his hand firmly on his CO's shoulder and turned him round, and was now cowering slightly under his glare. "You're late."

"Late for wha-, oh shit!" he swore loudly and began running to the exit, trampling any poor crewmen that got in his way. Just before he exited he yelled over his shoulder "Thanks Mike!" and ran out of the door.


	2. Shunned

Trip sprinted down the corridors and into the turbolift. _I can't believe I fell back to sleep!_ He mentally kicked himself. _If this keeps happening someone is gonna report it, and that means talking to the captain..._ He thought and involuntarily shuddered just as the lift doors opened to reveal the bridge.

He turned to his right to see the senior staff standing around waiting for him. No he corrected himself, after scanning to see who was there. _The captain ain't here yet either_. Trip breathed a sight of relief. He hadn't been particularly looking forward to pissing the captain off anymore than he already had.

Although the Captain had seemed to accept that he and Jennifer had been telling the truth, there was still that look he shot Trip when he thought he wasn't looking. It unnerved him. He'd always regarded the Captain as one of his closest friends, but since the mission on Serena, they'd barely spoken to each other off duty, or on duty for that matter. It hurt Trip that he'd betrayed his friend, and that their friendship seemed un- repairable. _I had to do it_. He thought.

This feeling of guilt, was what had been depriving Trip of his sleep. Every time he closed his eyes he saw one of his crewmates, usually Archer or Malcolm, yelling at him, screaming, demanding to know the truth, or calling him a traitor. Other times he was drowning in a sea of darkness, and more often than not he though he could feel a hand on his head pushing him under. It was for this reason he'd decided he only needed to sleep when he was dead on his feet, unable to carry on. He could just about stand facing his friends in reality, but in his dreams where their faces and eyes were full of hate and fury...No, that was too much.

He was broken out of his reverie by the swishing of the door that led to the captains ready room. Trip quickly made his way closer to the table, and took a place next to T'Pol. She and she alone seemed to be the only one who didn't harbour any doubts about whether he and Jennifer had been telling the truth. Admittedly she had her doubts to begin with, but once the others had woken, and had also been suffering from amnesia, taking their word as the truth had been the 'only logical conclusion'.

She nodded her greeting to him, he smiled back.

The captain took his place at the head of the table. "We've received a distress call." He said shortly.

"What species?" Malcolm asked quickly. Trip noticed him glancing quickly in his direction, he diverted his eyes.

Hoshi answered this time. "You remember when those aliens drugged the entire crew, and pillaged the ship?"

"How could we forget?" Malcolm replied dryly. She smiled.

"Well when we woke up I downloaded their language into the database, and this matches it." She said.

Trip's stomach did a back flip. This could be bad.

"We've changed course and are heading for the co-ordinates." Archer informed them.

Trip was debating with himself whether to say something, he knew whatever contribution he made would most probably be ignored. No he thought, they're more professional than that.

He opened his mouth to speak, but Malcolm beat him to it. "Do you really think that's wise sir?" he asked sceptically.

_God bless that man, and his paranoia._ Trip thought. Trip felt a small smile playing at his lips. But then he remembered Malcolm's recent hostility towards him, and the smile slid off his face.

"We'll find out when we get there Malcolm." Archer said, and the finality in his tone seemed enough to keep Malcolm quiet for now. "Dismissed." He said, and the senior staff mad their way back to their posts.

Trip headed back to the turbolift. He was beginning to wonder why he turned up at all, they certainly wouldn't miss him if he didn't.


	3. Making Up With Mal

"Shit."

"That just about covers it." Trip said, smiling bitterly.

"Ha bloody ha." I _don't have time for this. I have to find another encryption code Hoshi won't be able to crack, which it goes without saying is one of the most difficult things anyone could possibly have do._

__"Jen, we have to make sure that ship is gone before we get there."

"No kiddin' Einstein." She said.

"So, what code we usin'?" he asked.

"I was thinking..." she paused and leant back on his bunk to rest her head on the back "FPBR-3." She said staring down at her boots.

Trip stood up from his desk, which he'd been leaning on, looking horrified. "No way Jen! You can't do that! What if Hoshi sets it off? It, it, it'll " he stuttered.

"I know, but I can't think of a better one, and with Ensign Hoshi Sato at communications, we don't have a choice." She said quietly.

He nodded sombrely, trying to avoid thinking about the trouble this was going to cause.

* * *

The door swished open on the bridge to reveal Ensign Jennifer James. She walked briskly over to Malcolm's station. She tried to engage him in conversation but he ignored her point blank. She leaned in further and whispered something inaudible in his ear. His head snapped up and there faces were millimetres apart. She nodded her head very slightly, and straightened up. He rose from his chair and they headed towards the turbolift.

"Lieutenant, where are you going?" Sub-Commander T'Pol asked.

"To the mess hall" he said shortly.

"The mess hall? Lieutenant you shouldn't leave your post."

"My shift was over ten minutes ago, so I think you'll find I can." He said curtly, stepped into the turbolift and closed the door.

_I wonder what that was about._ Hoshi thought. A quiet beeping on her comm drew her attention. She looked down, and began to investigate the cause. After a few minutes she found it. "Not again..." she said.

"Ensign?" T'Pol enquired.

"Another encrypted message."

The Vulcan characteristically raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "Then I suggest you inform the Captain, and begin to decrypt it."

"Yes Ma'am."

* * *

Malcolm followed Jennifer down the corridor of B-deck. He couldn't believe them, he just couldn't believe them, the gall of it, and telling the chief of security. Idiots. He stopped at a fork in the corridor he went to turn left but Jennifer carried on walking right.

"Jen? Where...?" Then it dawned on him. "Commander Tuckers quarters?"

She doubled back, and nodded "C'mon Malcolm." He followed her reluctantly.

When they reached Trip's quarters Jennifer didn't press the door chime, but opened the door herself and walked straight in. He was sitting at his desk, looking at the screen on his desk and running his hands through his hair, looking extremely stressed. He glanced round when they entered, but then turned back to the screen.

"Commander?"

"Lieutenant." He said quietly "Why don't you take a seat?" he asked politely indicating his bunk, eyes still focused on the screen.

"Jennifer said something about a communication with the Endeavour?" he asked.

"Yeah, Jen why don't you explain?" he asked her, finally turning round to face them.

Jennifer rolled her eyes, causing Malcolm to smirk, but nodded. She turned round, and sat crossed legged. He turned to face her, and looked her straight in the eye.

"Well, you know the ship we got the distress call from?" he nodded "It belongs to a pair of aliens we traded with, while we were on Serena."

"Traded?"

"Well yes, um, that's the problem, it wasn't exactly a fair trade. We ended up shooting them and taking theirs, and keeping ours. So they won't exactly be please to see us." She smiled slightly at this. Malcolm still hadn't dropped his calculating gaze, so she continued. "So we, me and Trip, sent a message to the Endeavour to pick them up before we get there."

"And why are you telling me this?" he asked.

"Well we both felt really bad about, you know..." she trailed off.

"Erasing my memory." He supplied.

"Yeah, yeah that." she said.

"Look Malcolm about that," Trip piped up "we really didn't have any choice. If you'd woken up with your memories you might've let something slip, or ratted us out." He added as an afterthought.

"True, but I still don't get it, why...?"

"The encryption code we used, it er, we used..." Trip couldn't bring himself to say it.

"FPBR-3." Jennifer said. Malcolm paled. He was speechless. "Malcolm?" she leant forward and put her and on his arm "Say something."

"Like what?" he managed to get out.

"We just thought we should tell you." Trip said.

"We didn't want to, but you know Ensign Sato, she can decode anything, and with Sub-Commander T'Pol's help..."

"We just thought, you'd like to be prepared..."

"...Incase she sets it off."

"I, eh, OK." He said. "At least I got some forewarning." He said. He felt Jennifer's hand slide down his arm, and her fingers wrap round his and squeeze it gently. He looked down at their entwined hands, still slightly dazed then up at her, she was half smiling. He glanced over at Trip, who had turned back to the screen, and had begun running his fingers through his hair again.

"Well I think I'll go then." He said, gently pulling his hand away from Jennifer's and standing up.

"OK Malcolm." Trip said. Turning away from the screen he got up and walked towards Malcolm who had reached the door. "So," he said quietly "does this mean your talking to me again?" he asked hopefully.

Malcolm couldn't help but smile at the look on Trip's face. "Sure." he said, and before he knew if Trip had pulled him into a hug. Trip pulled back quickly.

"Sorry, it's just, I missed ya." He said rather timidly.

"As much as I hate to admit it, I missed you too." He said and smiled at Trip, who beamed back. "maybe I'll see you at dinner?" he asked.

"Wild horses couldn't drag me away." Trip said.

Malcolm turned to Jennifer expectantly. "Ensign?" he asked, making her laugh.

"Sure thing, Lieutenant." He smiled to them both, and left.

Walking down the corridor he couldn't help but feel lighter somehow. He'd really missed his friendly banter with Trip.

But there was one thing that occupied his thoughts more than anything else. More than the fact he'd made up with his best friend, more even than the gut-wrenchingly dreadful information they had just supplied him with. The warm, soft touch of her hand in his.


	4. Fluffy Pink Bunny Rabbits

Captain Archer surveyed the bridge. He'd come to see whether Hoshi had got any further with breaking the encryption on that message. His initial reaction when she'd told him was to haul Trip and Ensign James up in front of him for an explanation. But he'd thought it through and remembered he had no evidence against them. And so the nervous feeling in the pit of his stomach remained.

He glanced over at Hoshi, and noticed how hard she appeared to be working, hunched over her console with a look of intense concentration on her face. _She'll break that code in no time._

__

He turned to re-enter his ready room when he heard footsteps behind him. Turning round he found himself facing T'Pol. He raised his eyebrows at her.

"Captain may I speak with you?"

"Of course." He said and gestured to the door leading to his ready room.

Once inside he sat down at his desk and looked up at her expectantly. "So, what's on your mind?"

"I thought it would be wise to report to you ," she paused.

"Yes?"

"Lieutenant Reed's odd behaviour earlier today."

"Odd?"

"Yes sir, he seemed on edge, and was very abrupt, almost rude when speaking to me."

"Sounds like the Malcolm we all know and love." He said with a smirk.

"More than usual Captain."

"OK then T'Pol, it's noted, he probably just didn't get enough sleep or something, dismissed."

"Yes sir."

He watched her leave, wondering if she would ever realise humans sometimes just had a bad day. He gazed around his ready room, and realising he didn't have much else to do, decided to go back to the bridge.

On entering he noticed Hoshi had a slight smile on her face.

"Ensign?"

She smiled at him. "I've broken the first line of the encryption."

"The first line?" he asked sceptically.

"Yes sir, in a simple code there are usually only one or two, but this code is extremely complex. There seems to be backup's that come online when you break one line of the code. However I think I've found a way of disabling them, and I've nearly got the second line."

"Great work Ensign."

"Sir, I think I-"

"What?" He asked walking over to her station. He looked down at it and his frowned with confusion.

On the screen were two fluffy pink bunny rabbits smiling and winking at them, between them written in pink and red lettering was the following message:

CONGRATULATIONS!

You broke the first and second line of code in the FPBR-3 encryption package!

Unfortunately for you the new and improved third version of Fluffy Pink

Bunny Rabbits isn't your average encryption code.

When someone breaks the first line we don't mind to much, but when they get to the second we get mad!

Once you've got two bunny rabbits, you get more and more and more.

We like to play in your computer systems, and sometimes we accidentally gnaw through conduits and power cables.

Many apologies for any trouble we may cause.

Maybe this'll teach you not to try and read other people's mail!

HAVE A NICE DAY!

"What in the hell-" he began but stopped as the lighting on the bridge flickered and then went back on. When he looked back down at Hoshi's station there were pink and red hearts raining down the screen. The rabbits were gone however.

"Captain." He turned round to see T'Pol staring down at her station with a look of disgust on her face. He quickly made his way over only to see two bunny rabbits 'frolicking' in the shower of pink and red hearts, when they began to bound away they were followed by ten smaller pink rabbits.

He looked round at Hoshi. "This can't be good."


	5. Bunnies And Their Consequences

Trip was working on some long over due reports at his desk. How on earth he ever let things get this far behind he didn't know. He'd already finished an entire flask of coffee and was on the verge of going down to the mess and get some more when he heard the confused cursing of his 2IC, and then promptly a few seconds later, "Aw, look they're soo cute."

He rolled his eyes, and heaved himself out of his chair, making his way over to the station she was working at. When he reached it he had trouble surpressing his amusement, which resulted in a most unflattering snort emerging from his mouth. Jen's updates had sure made all the difference.

Pink and Red hearts were fluttering down the screen like rain, gathering in piles at the bottom. Half a dozen pink fluffy bunny rabbits were playing joyfully in them. On the right hand side a particularly boisterous rabbit, male (you could tell as it was a lighter shade of pink, the females were a shade lighter than Barbie pink) was chasing after a shy looking girl rabbit. Trip watched as she hid underneath the growing mountain of red and pink hearts, and he dived in after her. After a minute or two he resurfaced looking thoroughly pleased with himself, she followed, as did ten baby bunnies.

Again he let out a snort of laughter.

"Ahem." Trip started, he'd almost forgotten Hess was standing next to him. "Sir, What the hell is going on?"

"I wouldn't know." He replied, and began to walk back to his mountain of paperwork.

"Well, what should I do, sir?"

"Just ignore them."

"Ignore them?"

"Yeah Hess, ignore em. We haven't been given any orders, or instructions that concern fluffy pink bunny rabbits, so tha's exactly what we're gonna do until we're given such instructions. Clear?"

"Yes sir." she said with a half smile, which he returned.

Back to work then Tucker he thought. Turning to face his screen, he realised that without more coffee he was going to screw it all up anyway. So glad for the excuse he picked up his empty flask and headed for the mess. "I'll be back soon Hess." He called to her, and headed out.

* * *

He hummed tunelessly on his way to the mess hall. He stopped when he heard the crackling of the comm. The interference was distorting the words. He walked over to a comm. panel, and strained his ears to listen.

"Arâ€”-r t-â€”mmanâ€”r Tuâ€”er." Ah. He'd been waiting for this. He pressed the button to respond.

"Sir? I'm sorry but I can't quite hear you, there must be something wrong with the comm." he said, as innocently as he could, he hoped the captain couldn't hear the note of amusement in his voice through the interference.

"â€”m- to tâ€”briâ€”- imâ€”-ateâ€”y."

"Sir I really can't hear you." He replied.

"BRI-GE -OW!"

"Er, yes sir, on my way." He said hastily, there was no confusing what he had just said, even through the static. _Looks like that coffee'll have to wait._

__

* * *

"We have a situation Commander." T'Pol told him.

"Oh do tell."

"There was an encrypted message sent a few hours ago," Archer paused, just incase Trip wanted to confess anything, he didn't so the captain continued "Hoshi discovered it. She was onto the second line of encryption when it-" he stopped, trying to think of the right words to describe it.

"Blew up in your face?"

"Not literally, but yes."

"Why are you telling me?"

"Wha- Why are we telling you? Well you're the chief engineer for one."

"Yeh chief engineer, not anti-virus specialist."

"Commander surely you know something about computer virus'." This was Hoshi. She had until now been standing quietly out of the way, she couldn't shake the feeling that this was her fault. True she hadn't been the one who sent the message, but she'd set the virus off.

"Yeh well, not enough to contend with something like this." he lied. Truth be told he'd co-written the virus, but he certainly wasn't going to give them the chance to figure that out.

"You could at least give Hoshi a hand." Archer said, glancing across at the young Ensign.

"To be honest, I think I'd be betta fixin' what it screws up, sir."

"Fine, you might as well get going then." The captain knew when he was defeated.

"Yes sir." And with that Trip left, to run disaster control from engineering.


	6. Making Up With The Cap'n

Stars were flying past his window, Captain Archer was staring at them blankly. There was something wrong with his ship, and his Chief Engineer didn't seem to care in the slightest.

The door chime sounded. "Come."

"Captain." Sub-Commander T'Pol was standing in front of him, her expression as usual blank and unreadable.

"T'Pol? Is there something I can do for you?"

"I just wanted to inquire as to whether you had noticed Commander Tucker's rude behaviour earlier?"

"Yes, I did."

"Then why didn't you confront him about it? You are his superior officer, he should not have spoken to you in that manner."

He sighed. "I know T'Pol, but I haven't exactly been polite to him recently."

"I have not observed you being rude to him on any occasion." She countered.

"No, but I haven't been polite either, he has every right to be, short, with me."

"Not in front of other members of the crew in a status meeting."

"T'Pol just leave it, okay? If it happens again I'll have a word with him." He turned and looked at the passing stars again. "Was there anything else?"

"No sir."

"Dismis-" the door chime sounded, interrupting him. "Come."

A slightly dishevelled looking Commander Tucker entered the ready room. The sleeves of his uniform were pushed up to his elbows, it was covered in spots of grease, and was unzipped half way down. His hair was also ruffled as if he'd been repeatedly running his hands through it., and the dark smudges underneath his eyes gave the impression he hadn't got a good nights sleep in a few days. He looked from the captain to T'Pol then back again.

"Dismissed T'Pol." She nodded and left.

"Something I can do for you Commander?"

"I, well," he spoke quietly and hesitantly "I just wanted to apologise."

"For what?"

"For yesterday, at the status meeting, I was well real rude, an' not real helpful at all. I, well I was tired, and, I just wanted to say I was sorry." He trailed off leaving a somewhat awkward silence.

_He's sorry? Trip Tucker admitting he was wrong?_ He smiled at this thought.

"Apology accepted Trip."

Trip let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding.

"So how are the repairs going?"

"Not so well." Trip said running his hand through his hair. "There's no problem fixing them, they're trivial, but by the time we've finished repairing one thing five more things have gone wrong." He sighed. "Are we still heading for that ship?"

"Why?"

"I just don't know what help we're gonna be with half our systems off- line." He said.

"Maybe you could try giving Hoshi and T'Pol a hand with the virus, encryption, or whatever the hell it is." Archer said gently, and hopefully.

"Sir, it really isn't my area, I-" he stopped at the look on the captains face, he didn't want to spoil things when they appeared to be getting on so well "but I guess I could give it a go." He sighed.

"Great, why don't you go and see them now." Archer said happily.

"Yes sir." Trip turned round and opened the door.

"Trip?"

"Yes sir?"

"Do you want to join me for dinner tonight?" Archer said hopefully.

"I'd love to sir." And with that he left his superior officer with a slight smile on his face echoing his own.


	7. Daydreams, Crawlspaces, And Warp Trails

Malcolm sat staring into space, well not space, but the screen in front of him. Which happened to be raining red and pink hearts. He was supposed to be setting up the test perameters for the phase cannons. The virus had had them off-line for a few hours, and the captain had authorised a test the next chance they got, and Malcolm had wanted to be ready. Had wanted. Now all thoughts of the cannons had left his mind. Infact all thoughts full stop had left his mind. Except one. He was just sitting with his chin in his hands staring at the screen, not really seeing anything.

"Sir?" Crewman Smith was standing next to him with a rather concerned look on her face. Malcolm blinked rapidly, and then faced her.

"Sorry crewman, did you want something?"

"Commander Tucker is sending up an engineer to help handle some of the malfunctions, we need you to check over this list of things that have gone wrong."

"Sure." Malcolm took the padd from her hand and began scanning through it. "Crewman? Did you put the door mechanism on here?"

"Oh no sir, I forgot."

"That's all right I'll tell them. Who is he sending down?" Malcolm asked without looking up.

"Ensign James." She said.

_Oh crap_. Not good, she was the reason he'd been distracted in the first place, and now he had to work with her, in close proximity. _Oh crap._

* * *

Strolling down the corridor with a tool kit in tow, Jennifer hummed tunelessly. Someone may wonder why she was happy, after all she'd had more repairs in the past few days than the past year. The reason she was happy was that she got to spend the whole day, and probably more considering how well the virus was progressing, with Malcolm. She hadn't spoken to him since they'd told him about the virus, they'd all been really busy. Or maybe Malcolm had been avoiding her?

As she approached her apprehension grew. She pressed the button to open the armoury door and stepped in, well a little, and stood in the doorway. She heard a swishing noise and turned to see the door closing on her.

Suddenly she felt two strong hands grab her waist and pull her away. She held on to her saviour for dear life, even though they were now standing perfectly still clear from the murderous door. Her hair blocked her vision, she shook her head to let it settle and found her face millimetres away from Malcolm's.

"You gotta watch that door." He said softly.

"Yeah I noticed." S =he replied dryly. He smiled, a smile that lit up his often cold grey eyes, and she noticed they were more blue when seen from this distance. She smiled back.

Glancing down she realised they were still holding onto each other. She looked up and saw a blush creep from his neck into his face. He removed his hands abruptly, she followed his lead and removed her own hands, a little more reluctantly.

"Thanks Malcolm." She said.

"No problem." He cleared his throat and took a step backwards. "I suppose we better get to work then."

"Right, of course, where do you want to start?"

"The door?"

"Good idea."

* * *

"Bridge to Lieutenant Reed." Malcolm leaned awkwardly over Jennifer to the comm on the side of the jeffrey's tube.

"Reed here."

"Could you report to the bridge please Malcolm."

"On my way, Reed out." He turned to face Jennifer who had shifted to the other side of the jeffrey's tube. "Sorry Jen you can manage here on your own can't you?"

"Sure, but it won't be as much fun." She smiled.

"I'm afraid I can't do anything about that for now." He said feeling his face begin to burn slightly.

"You better get going then Lieutenant." She said.

"I would but you're sitting in my way." He replied dryly.

"Sorry." she said, moving slowly out of his way, brushing up against him in the process (after all those crawl spaces are very small). "See you later Lieutenant." She called after him as he made his way out.

* * *

Malcolm walked onto the bridge to find all the senior staff at their posts. He made his way over to his station quickly and sat down.

"It's not here." Archer said.

"I'm sorry sir? What's not here?" Malcolm asked.

"The ship, the distress call."

"Oh of course sir, have you scanned the area?"

T'Pol responded this time. "Yes, we found a warp trail, leading to a nearby system. However Commander Tucker and the Captain are of the opinion that it doesn't belong to the ship which sent the distress call."

"The trail is of a highly sophisticated engine, warp 6 capable at least. The ship that sent the distress call was no where near that, from the scans we have of it, it could do warp 2 at the most." The Captain told him.

"So, this warp 6 ship picked up the other ship and took it to the nearby system?"

"That's what it looks like. I've decided to follow them."

"Are you sure that's a good idea sir?" Malcolm asked.

"I don't see why not, if they don't want company we can leave, if they aren't there we have a whole new planet to explore." Malcolm nodded dejectedly.

"Travis set a course."

"Yes sir."


	8. Going In

"Scans are picking up a large vessel on the planet's surface Captain." T'Pol stated. Archer turned to face her with an 'Are you sure about that'? look on his face.

"Sir, they are heavily damaged, I think they crashed." Malcolm told him.

"Can we hail them?"

"I doubt they'd respond."

"Okay. Travis put us in orbit."

"Aye sir."

"T'Pol-"Archer begun, but was cut off when the entire ship shook. "Malcolm?"

"I don't know sir." The ship shook again. "There's nothing out there."

The ship was hit again, this time with much more force. Malcolm was thrown out of his seat, as was Hoshi. The lights flickered and then went down completely, and the emergency lights came on.

"What the hell is going on?" Archer shouted. No-one responded as the ship shook again. Sparks began to fly from various consoles and one behind T'Pol caught fire.

"Tucker to the bridge."

"Go ahead Trip."

"What's going on out there? The engine is cutting in and out. I've never seen anything like it."

"We don't know Trip."

Another impact to the hull made the ship quake again. "Hull plating is off- line." Malcolm reported.

"Sir!" Travis exclaimed.

"What?"

"The controls, they've locked up, we're heading straight into the planets atmosphere."

"Trip you still there?"

 

"Yes sir."

"Can you cut power from the engines?"

"Sorry sir, we've got no control over anything down here."

Archer stared at the screen, where the planet was coming towards them at a terrifying speed. "Without hull plating..." he trailed off.

"Sir." Malcolm said, somewhat confused "Hull plating has come back online, at 82%"

"Travis?"

"I'm still locked out sir."

"How long 'til we hit?"

"Approximately three minutes and twenty-three seconds sir." T'Pol responded.

"Hoshi broadcast this ship-wide." She pressed a few buttons then nodded in his direction. "All personnel on lower decks, D and E make your way to upper levels if possible. Hold on tight and try and keep away from the sides of the ship." He looked at Hoshi who cut the transmission. "How long?"

"Approximately two minutes and fifty eight seconds."

"I'm getting reports from C deck that all personnel have arrived safely."

"Everyone accounted for?"

"Everyone who was working on those decks, yes sir." Malcolm's head snapped up and he jabbed the comm.

"Reed to Crewman Smith."

"Yes sir." The ship gave another shudder.

"Did everyone get out of the armoury?"

"Yes sir, the four of us working in there are here."

"There were five, Crewman." Malcolm said vehemently.

"Ensign James." She breathed as comprehension dawned.

Malcolm didn't hear her though, he had already got up and opened the turbolift door. "Malcolm, where the hell are you going?" Archer demanded.

"To the armoury." And with that he shut the door.

"Ten seconds. Nine. Eight. Seven..." T'Pol counted down.

"Hold own to something!"

"Four. Three. Two,"

With a deafening crash the Starship Enterprise collided with the ground of the anonymous alien planet.


	9. Rescue

"Fucking hell!" Malcolm yelled as he was thrown into the front of the turbo- lift and heard a nasty crunching noise from his nose. "Shit." He said turning round and sinking to the floor, he pinched the bridge of his nose.

When he'd recovered and allowed his eyes to adjust to the darkness, he opened the hatch at the bottom of the turbo-lift and climbed down. He only had one deck to climb so he gritted his teeth and started to climb down the ladder.

When he reached the deck where the armoury resided he cursed again. The doors were shut, obviously. Looking around for anything he could use and finding nothing he kicked the ladder angrily. He smiled slightly as he realised he had loosened the rung of the ladder. He kicked it again and it buckled, he wrenched it off. Lodging it in the groove where the door met the wall he pushed the metal bar with all his body weight and cheered triumphantly when the door opened slightly. Throwing the broken ladder rung aside he heaved the door open and began down the corridor to the armoury.

Although his eyes had adjusted the darkness was rather eerie. As was the silence, not only from the lack of people he realised, but the engines were now silent. He smiled as he remembered one of Trip's frequently repeated phrases. "Without those vibrations, something just don't feel right." He made a mental note not to let Trip found out he felt the same way.

He stopped sharply when he heard a noise from further down the hall. _Well standing still isn't going to tell you what it was_. And so he cautiously edged his way up the corridor, wishing he had a phase pistol, hell even the broken ladder rung would do. As he walked further he noticed the ship was listing slightly.

Standing outside the door to the Armoury he scanned the area again, with his eyes. He reached to the panel to open the door, but his hand stopped in mid-reach. It couldn't be, they were inside a starship. There it was again. Even more cautiously he moved further down the corridor, and stopped dead when his worst fear was confirmed. His entire body tensed as he looked down to see water lapping at his boots.

Breath quickening and becoming increasingly shallow, he stumbled backwards and punched the panel next to the Armoury door. But it didn't open. _Obviously. Use your brain Reed, you just spent half an hour prising open one door, of course it won't open._

__

He desperately looked around to find something, anything to open the door with, when the door opened. Not on it's own he realised, when he saw the handle of the weapons locker in Jennifer's hand, hanging loosely at her side.

He took a step closer to her, looking up sharply she raised a phase pistol to his head. Then realising who it was broke into a smile and pulled him to her in a hug. Without really thinking he hugged her back, holding her tightly to him burying his face in her hair.

She pulled back, but didn't let go, resting her hands on his shoulders, while his sat on her waist. "Not that I'm complaining or anything, but why are you here?" she asked him.

"I came down when I heard they left you behind, just wait until I get my hands on them, leaving you behind like that, you could of..." he trailed off and pulled her to him again.

"Malcolm," she said into his shoulder, and then pulled away to face him again "I'm fine, I don't even know what's going on, I assume we crashed? I only woke up when I hit the side of the tube."

"Woke up?" he asked.

"Er, yeh." She pulled away uncomfortably.

"Jen?"

"Well, you know I get claustrophobic, well it wasn't so bad when you were there, but when you went I got all dizzy and-"

"You passed out? Oh my God Jen!" it was then he noticed the cut on her head, from where her unconscious body had obviously smacked into the jeffrey's tube when they'd hit

"It's OK I'm fine!" She said stepping back further. But he stepped after her and pulled back the hair that had stuck to the congealed blood on the wound.

"Jen-" He began.

"Malcolm, we don't have time for this." He briefly considered saying something else but knew there was no use arguing with her. "As you're here you can carry some of this." She indicated to the two containers with straps fitted to them inside the doorway and the two rifles and phase pistol on top. Before he knew what was happening she'd slung a case and rifle over his shoulders and holstered the pistol on his hip. "We've got to get out of here." She said and looked to her left, the direction of the water, Malcolm noticed.

"We can't go that way, it's flooded." He said quickly. She looked at him, eyes full of concern.

"Malcolm, we have to get out as soon as we can, and the nearest hatch to the outside is that way." She indicated with a nod of her head.

"Yeh, but...we...I . ."

"It's OK Mal, it's not that deep, really, I checked, we're only on the edge of the lake."

"How could you check?"

"Well," she hesitated.

"Yes?"

"The other ship? It's the Endeavour."

"No."

"Yes, I dropped Chris a line, he wasn't in such a good mood, but I told him about the situation, and he ran a few scans, we're just on the edge of a small lake, no deep water." She smiled at the look on his face. "Really, I wouldn't want to go either if it wasn't the truth."

"O, OK." He said. She took a few steps forward, but Malcolm still couldn't move. He watched her take out a torch and shine it down the hall. He wished she hadn't.

The angle at which the ship was resting meant the water had pooled in the corners and the corridors to the side of the ship. Which was exactly the direction they were going. Even worse the further down the corridor he looked the deeper the water got. He shuddered involuntarily. He could feel the cold seeping into him already, and they weren't even in the water yet.

Jumping slightly at the warmth of her touch Malcolm looked down to see Jennifer's hand, yet again, wrapping itself round his. Her warmth seemed to seep through him, and he gave her a slight nod to show her he was ready. Not letting go of his hand, she led them through the water logged ship.


	10. I'm So Proud Of You

Captain Archer paced nervously. He was standing on the shore of a very large lake on an alien planet. Not so far away was his ship, crashed on the planet, partially submerged in water. Even though the crew had only a few minutes warning they had managed to safely evacuate the crew. Apart from a few minor injuries his crew were unharmed, present and correct. Except for three of his officers, two of which happened to be senior officers, and his close friends.

As far as anyone knew Trip had been in Engineering when they hit, but the engineering crew insisted there had been no sign of him when they were evacuating. Archer didn't want to believe them, but knew these people would not have left their CO behind.

_Then where the hell is he?_ He stopped pacing for a second and pulled out his communicator again, for more than the tenth time in the past hour.

"Archer to Tucker." he paused only hearing static "Trip respond." He ran a hand through his hair, and resumed pacing.

Then there was Malcolm, who had sprinted off the bridge moments before they crashed to rescue the third missing crew member Ensign James. He had to have been in the lift still when they hit. Stopping again he raised his communicator to his face. "Archer to Lieutenant Reed." He sighed "Malcolm respond!"

"Captain." He turned round to face T'Pol. As usual her expression was calm, never mind the fact they had just crashed landed on an unknown alien planet. "You need to decide what to do, the crew are becoming increasingly," she paused searching for the right words "emotional."

"What do you expect?" he snapped at her. "We just crashed T'Pol! This isn't exactly the type of situation which calms peoples nerves!"

"Sir-"

"Sorry, I...you're right, lets get to work."

* * *

Malcolm shivered again. She must have felt it too because she turned to look at him. "It's OK Malcolm almost there now."

"You said that half an hour ago." He said through gritted teeth. He'd meant it to sound menacing, but he just sounded pitiful, even to his own ears.

"C'mon." She encouraged pulling at his hand. Reluctantly he forced himself to keep going. The water was now halfway up his chest and lapping menacingly, occasionally splashing his face, another shiver crept up his spine.

He didn't know how he was still moving, usually he would have frozen up by now, not been able to move. _Don't think like that Reed, just keep going, Don't think, just keep going._

A few minutes later he walked straight into Jennifer, knocking her over. To Malcolm's horror she went under. Reacting quicker than he thought possible with his frozen limbs, he grabbed her and pulled her back to the surface.

"Thanks." She breathed, squeezing out her soaking wet hair. "We're here." She said.

"Oh, right." He replied.

She waded over to the door, and grabbed the handle and pulled. It didn't budge. Wading over to join her he too gripped the handle. "One, two, three." The door opened with a groan.

"One down, one to go." Malcolm said. They repeated the same process again and wrenched the outer hatch door opened.

Malcolm squinted as they were bathed in bright sunlight. After his eyes had adjusted to the brighter surroundings he inhaled a rasping breath. They were indeed on the edge of a lake. A large lake.

"C'mon Malcolm, we'll be on the shore soon." Reluctantly he followed her as she swam to the shore. After a few minutes he found, to his delight, that his feet touched to bottom and he would wade back to the shore.

Sooner than he'd thought they reached the shore. He could feel the relief wash over him as he placed to feet on dry land. When he turned round to look at the ship he had to double take, it looked so far away, and yet he, aquaphobic Malcom Reed, had swam all that way, carrying a case of not so light weapons. He almost laughed out loud. If only his parents could see him now. Picturing the disbelieving look on his father's face, he actually did laugh out loud.

Jennifer looked at him in surprise. "What?" She said walking closer to him.

"Look," he said gesturing an arm towards the ship "just look." She smiled at him.

"I know." She said "I can't believe you actually did it."

"You're not the only one." He said with a characteristic half smile.

Without warning she pulled him into a hug. "Well done Malcolm Reed. I'm so proud of you." She whispered into his ear.


	11. Where's Trip?

"You could have packed some water!" Malcolm moaned.

"Well I was kind of in a rush at the time, first priority was the weapons." Jennifer snapped back. _We've been here half an hour, and he hasn't quit moaning!_

"A lot of good that's gonna be when we die of dehydration." He grumbled.

"Oh shut up." She said and flopped down next to him.

Malcolm leaned back and rested his head on the tree he was sitting against. "Even a scanner would help, to see if that water is fit to drink." He said pointing at the lake.

"It's fine, as I've told you ten times already. I swallowed a mouthful when I went under earlier, and I'm perfectly fine!"

"Debatable." He smirked. "Ow!" Now it was her turn to smirk. _I suppose I deserved that._

"Malcolm."

"What"?

"Your communicator." So he unzipped his pocket (soaking wet by now) and pulled out his communicator, sure enough it was beeping, very quietly though.

"How the hell did you hear that?" He asked her, she shrugged. Opening it he said "Reed, Captain is that you?"

"Malcolm?" His voice sounded distant and the signal was intermittent at best. Malcolm shook it and found the source of the problem when water flew out of it.

"Sorry sir, is that better?" he asked after giving it a thorough shake.

"A little." He replied, sounded slightly clearer. "Where have you been Malcolm? I've been trying to contact you for hours."

"Sorry sir, I didn't hear it, with all the water and all."

"Water?"

"Yes sir, E deck is flooded, didn't you know?"

"And you...?"

"Swam through it, yes sir." He said, unable to keep the smile from his face, even if it was somewhat shaky.

"On your own?"

"No sir, I wouldn't have been able to do it without a little help. Ensign James is with me." He clarified.

"Wow Malcolm, I mean well done...but wait, is Trip with you?"

"No sir." Malcolm said casting a worried glance at Jennifer.

"Oh, it's just, well, we can't find him, everyone else is accounted for."

"Hang on a second sir would you?"

"Sure."

Malcolm shut the communicator. "Could the Endeavour have anything to do with this?"

"I suppose..."she thought "they could have transported him out."

"Why wouldn't they do the same for you?"

"I don't have my comm. unit with me, they might not've been able to get a lock."

"But surely they've lost power like Enterprise?" he asked.

"Maybe they found a way of getting power back online."

"Sounds like we could use some help from them then."

"Malcolm, you know they wouldn't -"

"But Trip would, and if he's there, then they have to follow his orders don't they?" he argued.

"I suppoâ€”"

Malcom flipped open his communicator. "Sir."

"Yeah Malcolm."

"We have theory as to the location of Commander Tucker."

"You do?" Archer asked curiously.

"Yes sir, but it would be better to explain face to face. Where are you?"

"On the shore of the lake, port side."

"Ah, we're starboard." He paused to think. "No problem, we'll just climb under her." He said glancing at the fallen starship. "There's enough room isn't there?" he looked at Jennifer.

"Erm, yeh I s'pose, not much though, it looks pretty tight."

"We're on our way sir, I'll check in, in half an hour if we aren't already there."

"OK Malcolm, be careful."

"Yes sir. Reed out." He snapped the communicator shut. "OK Jen, lets get moving."


	12. Memories

"I never want to do that again."

Malcolm laughed. "It wasn't that bad."

"No no, not bad at all, I just hyperventilated when we got stuck." Malcolm laughed again. "We should have gone over the top." She said sulkily.

"It would have taken twice as long that way." She gave him a death stare and he laughed again.

* * *

"Captain." Archer turned to face T'Pol who had just entered the make shift command area. "Lieutenant Reed and Ensign James are approaching." He nodded in response and followed her outside.

He looked towards his fallen ship and spotted his two officers walking towards them. Ensign James looked rather annoyed, and Malcolm was grinning about something. When he spotted his commanding officer however, he wiped the smile off his face.

"Captain, Sub-Commander." He paused and scowled slightly. "Doctor." Surprised, Archer turned round to see Phlox standing just behind them, smiling jovially at them all.

"Malcolm, Ensign, good to see you."

"You too sir." he said.

"I'll cut to the chase, you said you had an idea to where Trip is?" Archer asked. He watched as Malcolm cast an uneasy glance towards Ensign James, which she returned.

"Yes sir." he said finally "But it's, a long story." He took a deep breath and opened his mouth to continue when Phlox interrupted him.

"I'm sure that it is Lieutenant, but I'm sure it could wait a few minutes while I see to that nose."

Malcolm frowned. "Doctor I really don't think-" But Phlox cut him off again.

"It doesn't look broken, but I'm sure you'd appreciate something to ease the pain, and I'd like to take a look at that head injury too Ensign." He added, wiping the smirk off her face.

"It's nothing Doc, I'm fine."

"I'm afraid I won't take no for an answer." He answered cheerfully.

"Sure Doctor, lead the way." Malcolm relented..

* * *

Malcolm sat watching Phlox clean Jen's head wound, every few seconds she winced in pain and tried to shove him away. He'd already been seen to, and the captain had been keen to hear what he had to say, but Malcolm wanted to wait for Jennifer, after all she could tell the captain a lot more than he could.

The captain himself was standing next to Malcolm's bio-bed tapping his foot impatiently. Malcolm was finding it increasingly irritating. It was when he started drumming his fingers on the bio-bed that Malcolm snapped.

"Sir!" he practically shouted.

"Lieutenant please, keep your voice down." The Doctor said. He'd finally finished cleaning and sutering Jennifer's wound.

"I'm sorry am I disturbing your other patients?" he said darkly.

"As a matter of fact you are Malcolm, so don't take out your nasty change of mood on us." Jennifer told him.

"Oh I'm ever so sorry." he said sweetly.

"The hell with you." He heard her mutter.

"Ahem, if you are quite done can we get back to the subject at hand." The captain's patience had clearly run out.

"Right." Jennifer sad, and began rummaging round in the front pocket of her uniform. "Maybe Ensign Sato should join us?" she asked.

"Why?" Malcolm asked her curiously.

"Well I'm sure she wants her memories back too." She said, and pulled out three hypo-sprays.

"Oh, okay, chuck one here then."

He caught it with ease and brought it to his neck, when the Doctor swooped down and wrenched it out of his hand.

"Hey!"

"I'm sorry Lieutenant but we have no idea what is in these." He said sternly.

"You're right, I need to confess, they're filled with poison, I've been meaning to do away with him for a while now and this seemed an easy way to do it." Jennifer said sarcastically. Malcolm laughed.

"Just scan it." He said. "You'll see there's nothing that's going to hurt us." The Doctor raised his scanner and ran it over the hypo.

"Very well." He said and gave it back to Malcolm.

Jennifer got up and walked over to the captain, handing him one too. He eyed it and her suspiciously.

"I'll go first." Malcolm said, and without waiting for an argument pressed to hypo-spray to his neck. It was cold, and he shivered slightly. He blinked rapidly. Not feeling any different he looked to Jennifer who had sat down next to him on the bio-bed. "I don't think itâ€”whoa."

It was one the strangest experiences he'd ever had. A wave of dizziness engulfed him and his head pounded. But as suddenly as it had come it went again. He had expected to be inundated with flashes of memories, but nothing happened.

Thinking it was a waste of time and it hadn't worked, he remembered back to when he, Hoshi, and the Captain had been flying back down to the surface of Serena in the shuttlepodpod. Angrily thinking that he would never regain the memories they'd stolen from him, he was shocked to find that his memories continued. To landing on the surface, searching the club, listening to Jennifer sing, arguing with Jennifer and Trip, the captain and Hoshi finding them, trudging to an unknown cave, Jennifer and Trip revealing what they were up to, trading with those aliens, waking up in sick-bay.

It worked! He smiled to himself then at Jennifer. "You should sing more often." He said to her. She smiled.

"It worked then?" she asked him, he nodded.

"Your turn sir." He said to the Captain. "You might want to sit down though."

Malcolm watched as the captain went through the same thing he had moments before, wondering what he'd make of the new information.

He watched as the Captain's face fell. He looked up straight into Malcolm's eyes. Malcolm shifted his eyes away, feeling decisively guilty under his gaze.

Malcolm turned to face the door when he heard someone enter. His eyes met with those of Crewman Smith. He gave her one of his more intimidating stares before shifting backwards slightly so the young Crewman could see the stitches on Jennifer's head.

"Captain." She said nervously. "A small vessel is approaching."

"A what?"

"A small vessel." Malcolm said. He noticed the corners of Jennifer's mouth twitch out of the corner of his eye.

"Thank you Malcolm." Archer said coldly. Getting up from the chair he'd sat in, he followed Crewman Smith outside. Malcolm got up to follow and heard Jennifer jump off the bed and trudge along slowly behind him.

When they got outside he recognised the ship, which had now landed a few metres away, straight away. As they approached the hatch opened and a man stepped out. Blonde haired, quite tall, medium build, wearing a black uniform with red trim he smiled jovially when he saw those waiting for him.

Sub-Commander T'Pol, who was standing next to the captain who seemed stunned into silence, was the first to speak. "Commander Tucker?"

"Actually T'Pol, it's Captain Tucker, of the Resistance ship the Endeavor."


	13. Here's Trip

"Trip?"

"Yes Captain?"

"I...you...what...why?" Trip smirked as he watched Archer go through intense anger and extreme confusion, all in one.

"Captain? Do ya think ya could try and get out an entire sentence? Anythin' really, it'd make things go a lot quicker."

Archer's face was now contorted with fury. "Explain." He growled.

"Explain? Didn't Jen give you the hypo's?" he asked.

"Yes I did, sir." She spat.

"Mind the tone Commander, don't want to have to reprimand you for insubordination." He said, a cruel smirk playing on his lips. She stared daggers at him but remained silent.

"Trip explain what you're doing in that uniform." Archer

"The Endeavour crashed here too, they've however managed to get some systems back online, they transported me out just before Enterprise hit. As their Captain," he stressed 'Captain', "I thought it might be a little more encouraging for them if I wasn't wearing my Starfleet uniform."

"So..."

"I didn't have any intention of resuming my command until now sir." Trip said softly. "Enterprise was my home."

"Was?" Malcolm spoke up.

"Common sense Mal, like I can stay aboard now, I'll be court-martialled and kicked out. Right sir?" he directed this question back to Archer.

"Well, yeah Trip, there wouldn't be any other way, that I can think of." He said almost regretfully.

"Yeah thas what I thought." He paused for a second, and then seemingly having regained his composure continued. "Well we came over here to see if you wanted to work together to get out of here."

"Trip I really don't think-"

"Sir I know that Starfleet wouldn't want you working with us, and you probably don't want to either, but with the combined resources of both our crews, well things will go a lot quicker."

"Fair enough Trip, but where do we start?"

"How about we start with going somewhere to sit down? My knee is killing me."

"Your knee?" Archer asked slightly confused, while leading the way back to the command tent.

"How did you hurt it this time?" From the way Jennifer spoke, the others could tell it was a recurring injury.

"Kate bowled me over when she saw me." He laughed. "I had to post guards on her to make sure she didn't follow us down here." He smiled.

"I should think so too, she hasn't seen either of us in person for two years."

"You seen her hair?" he asked, a hint of amusement in his voice.

"No, what has she done?"

"You'll see."

"Trip!" she whined, he only laughed.

"Who is Kate?" T'Pol asked, the first words she had spoken since Trip had returned. Jennifer shot a glance at Trip before answering.

"My daughter." She said.

"And she is aquatinted with Commander Tucker?" T'Pol questioned. Jennifer opened her mouth to answer but Trip beat her to it.

"What Jen meant to say was our daughter." Archer stopped in his tracks inches from the command tent.

"You, you have a daughter Trip?"

"Er, yeah."

"How come you never told me?"

"I don't know really."

"Perhaps he is ashamed of her." T'Pol said.

"What?! No! I'm real proud of her."

"How old is she?" Archer asked while leading the group inside the tent.

"Seventeen" Jennifer answered taking a seat.

"Seventeen?! Trip you're only thirty-two. That would've made you-"

 

"Fifteen when she was born." He said taking a seat beside Jennifer. "We can discuss this later if you want, I'm sure she'd love to meet you too, but for now..." he trailed off.

"Right, right." Archer tried to concentrate, but his mind kept wandering. It was almost as if he'd been living a double life. He'd known Trip for ten years and didn't really know him at all. _Not for long_ , he thought determinedly. _Not for long._


	14. Kate

Malcolm was supposed to be overseeing the repairs onboard Enterprise. _Supposed_ to be. He was actually sitting in a shuttlepod, along with Hess, three other engineers and Travis in the driving seat. He'd fed them some lie about helping oversee repairs to weapons systems onboard the Endeavour.

He's sorted out the work schedule and handed it over to Rostov. After all Malcolm wasn't an engineer it wasn't his job to do repairs, to anything other than the armoury anyway. That was what he was telling himself at least.

Malcolm began to follow the others out of the pod after they'd landed when his communicator sounded. His hands fumbled to open his pocket and pull it out. He stared at it for a moment.

"Lieutenant!" he heard Travis yell from outside.

"Coming Travis!" he replied, quickly storing his communicator under the seat with the ration packs.

* * *

"T'Pol."

"Yes Captain."

"Have you seen Malcolm?" he asked her "I need to have a word with him." _More like two_ he thought _court-martial._

__

"No sir I haven't. I have been assigning guards to the Resistance personnel."

"Surely assigning the guards should have been Malcolm's job?" he questioned.

"Yes sir, however he asked me to do it for him. He did not seem happy about co-ordinate the repairs." She reported.

"Okay, thanks T'Pol." He said and left her to it.

He made his way to the make shift landing sight where pods ferrying repair teams had been landing and leaving. He smiled at Travis as he emerged from shuttlepod two, and walked over to greet him.

"How's it going Travis?"

"Brilliant sir, I always wanted to be a taxi cab driver." Archer laughed.

"Who did you just deliver?" he asked.

"Em, Lieutenant Hess, Crewman's Smith and James and Ensign Astor sir." he paused "Oh and Lieutenant Reed." He added. Not for the first time today, Archer stopped in his tracks.

"What?! Lieutenant Reed was in the shuttlepod you just took over to the Endeavour?"

"Yessir." Travis said wide eyed, realising he'd done something wrong. "Sir I'm sorry, was Lieutenant Reed not s'posed to-"

"No Travis he wasn't. If you wouldn't mind," he turned to face shuttlepod two "you've got another passenger."

"Yes sir!"

It had to Malcolm's lucky day. The escort for the team he'd come with was none other than Emma Tucker. When she had handed out assignments to the others, and they had gone on their way she turned to Malcolm with a smile on her face and whispered "The Captain, Commander and Crewman Tucker are in the command tent, over there" she pointed, then smiled at him warmly, "it's nice to see you Malcolm, I hope you'll stay and catch up with some of us later after our shift?" she asked.

"Sure thing, thanks Em." He said and made his way to the structure she had indicated.

The camp site was chaos, or so he thought. There seemed to be no clear pattern in the way the tents were laid out, and they were far to close to the ship in his opinion. He turned to face the enormous fallen ship before he entered the tent. She was beautiful. Almost as beautiful as Enterprise he thought.

He turned to face the opening of the tent. Clearing his throat loudly he entered.

Trip was sitting on a chair at the central table, with his feet on the table scrolling through something on a padd. Jennifer was sitting at a table in the corner picking through something on a food tray in front of her . The distraction from her meal sat opposite her at the table.

A young girl with dark blonde hair, almost brown. A pale complexion, like her mother. She was lean, but healthily so, and slightly shorter than Malcolm. Her eyes were neither the bright blue or the dazzling green of her parents, but a deep almost sea green.

Jennifer shifted her gaze towards him and smiled warmly. Looking up to see what her mother's attention was focused towards instead of her, Kate saw Malcolm and squealed.

"Ah! My Ears!" he complained in mock pain, as she hugged him.

"Uncle Malcolm!" she squealed again after pulling away.

"Less of the Uncle." He grimaced. "People might think I'm related to you people." She hit him on the arm.

"And what would be so bad about that?" she demanded.

"Oh nothing, nothing at all." he replied sarcastically.

Trip swung his legs off the table and got up to greet Malcolm. "Hey Mal, not that I'm not glad to see ya', but what are you doing here?"

"I came for a visit." He said evasively taking a seat at the centre table. Trip took his previous seat and eyed Malcolm curiously. "Look I just wanted to come over and say hi to a few familiar faces, you know-"

"Have a look at the weapons systems, and take a gander at the new EM force field we installed round the warp core in case of emergencies?" Trip finished for him.

"Well yeah..." Trip laughed and Malcolm smirked. "Am I that obvious."

"Pretty much." Jennifer said taking a seat opposite Malcolm. He flinched slightly as her foot brushed his as she sat down.

"Want anything to eat or drink?" Kate asked him.

"No thanks Kate." He said kindly. "I hear you're doing well in engineering?" She smiled and nodded. "Just like your parents, I always thought you'd do well in the armoury myself." He muttered.

"This way I get to do both, when something needs repairing in the armoury I go and repair it, but I still get to work with the engine." She said enthusiastically.

"Speaking of" Trip said "I think your break is over now Crewman."

"Yes sir." She said with a smile and turned to leave. "See you later Malcolm?"

"Of course." He smiled as she left. "How are the repairs going?"

"Slowly." Trip grumbled. "I'm beginning to wish I hadn't recommended working together, every engineer we get over here is to fascinated with how we got a warp six engine than fixing it." He sighed.

"Well you can't blame them, you'd be just the same."

"Yeah can't argue there I s'pose." He conceded.

"I just wanted to see how you were doing." Malcolm said softly.

"I can show you round if you want."

"You know what I mean." He replied seriously.

"Look Malcolm, it's just going to take a while to sink in that I'm not the chief engineer on Enterprise anymore, apart from that I'm just peachy." He said stubbornly.

"Trip-" he began but was interrupted.

"Sorry to interrupt sir."

"That's OK, go ahead Ensign." Trip said in full Captain mode.

"Yes sir, Captain Archer is here, he says he's looking for one of his officers and he's being quite...persistent." The young Ensign told them.

"Thank you Ensign I'll be right there." Trip told him and nodded for him to leave. Getting up he looked at Malcolm. "I'm guessing you didn't have permission to come over here?" he asked.

"Not exactly." Malcolm replied as he too got up."

"Didn't think so. C'mon then." He said leading the way out of the tent with Malcolm and Jennifer following closely behind.


	15. Malcolm's Explanation

"Malcolm! You're in enough trouble as it is without sneaking off over here without my permission!" Captain Archer shouted at Malcolm, who was feeling increasingly smaller under his CO's wrathful gaze.

"Sir, I..." he stopped realising he had nothing he could say to get him out of this situation.

"You what? What Malcolm? You seem to have way to much knowledge about this resistance? Why exactly is that?" Archer yelled. Malcolm shot a glance to Trip who was looking at Archer very worriedly.

"Cap'n." he said softly. "Why don't we go somewhere a little more, private?" he asked diplomatically. Before Archer could respond Trip was guiding him by the elbow back to the command tent. Malcolm stood motionless for a moment, a thousand thoughts running through his head.

"Malcolm." He snapped back to reality and found Jennifer talking to him. "I think your presence might be needed in there with them." She said.

"Er, right, yeah." He muttered, but still didn't move.

"C'mon Malcolm." She said gently sliding her hand into his and pulling him forward. He followed silently allowing her to lead him to the command tent, taking comfort in her touch. When they reached their destination however fresh dread filled him as she let go of his hand. Taking a deep breath he stepped in.

Once again Trip sat at the head of the table, Captain Archer was sat in the seat Jennifer had previously occupied. Malcolm took his seat opposite the Captain and Jennifer took the one on his left.

"So..." Archer said maliciously. Malcolm was stunned by the sudden change in the man. Thinking it through again he realised the immense stress the man must be under. After all his ship had crash landed on an unknown planet, with no identifiable cause, and no escape in the foreseeable future. And to top it all off he had just found out his best friend of a decade had a secret life. Malcolm realised he'd be as, if not more, edgy than the Captain under the circumstance.

"So, what do you want to know?" he asked, putting on his calm and cool face.

"How do you know about all this?" Archer asked directly.

"Well I've known for a long time now." Malcolm replied seeing Archer raise an eyebrow, he decided that it would be easier to explain all in one go, without giving him a chance to interrupt. "Since I was, sixteen, I think." He glanced at Jennifer who nodded.

"Sixteen."

"Right. That was when I met Jennifer."

"When you were sixteen?" Archer asked. So much for not letting him interrupt. "But, I don't understand, she would have been living in Florida then, right? With Kate?" he asked.

"No. She, well..."

"My father was never a big fan of Trip, and when I had Kate, well he wasn't happy. He took her away, put her in care, and wouldn't let me go and see her." She paused, the pain of the memories evident in her face and voice as she continued. "In the end he locked me up in our house. I couldn't stand it, I er, well I tried to kill myself. More than once." She paused and looked at Malcolm who offered her a comforting smile. "Being the snobby git he is, he wanted to send me to the best place possible, so he sent me to Gracie's in England."

"Gracie's?" Archer asked.

"Graceman's institution for the psychologically unstable." Malcolm clarified. "That's where I met her. My mother thought that maybe seeing a shrink might help me with my aquaphobia. Jennifer was brought up from the ward to see her doctor, who was next door to mine, we had appointments at the same time."

"It was nice to have normal person to talk to, I never got any visitors, my dad saw to that." Jennifer added.

"She told me about her plans to set up her 'own Starfleet' with her best friend Trip, they thought neither of them would get in as they both had criminal records. Jennifer didn't want to anyway though, she had the idea in her head that her dad represented what Starfleet officers were like."

"I told her about my fascination with weapons, and explained to her how some of my favourite ones worked and so on, she said I'd make a great tactical and weapons officer if I ever wanted to join them."

"Did you?" Archer questioned.

"They're getting to it sir, give them a chance." Trip interjected.

"My mother stopped my sessions with the doctor on my seventeenth birthday, she didn't approve of the present Jennifer gave me." He said with a smirk. At Archer's raised eyebrow he cleared his throat and continued. "I didn't see Jen for a while after that a few years later she was visiting a cousin with Kate in England, we bumped into each other, I was in the process of moving to San Francisco at the time, she gave me her number and address so I could visit her when I was settled."

"I took the entrance exam for Starfleet a few weeks later, I failed." He said matter of factly. "I was pretty upset, so remembering what Jennifer had told me years before I went to see her, and signed up."

"So you are part of the resistance." Archer said dejectedly. Malcolm continued as if he hadn't heard him.

"They trained me really well, I got a call from one of my friends from Frisco a few months in, wondering where I'd got to. He told me that he was sitting his entrance exam for Starfleet, and was wondering if I was going to try again." Malcolm paused for breath. "I told Jennifer and she said to go if I wanted to, so I did."

"And you passed." The Captain said.

"Yes, with flying colours apparently, thanks to the training I'd done. I resigned immediately and entered Starfleet." Malcolm finished. Archer just sat quietly staring into space. The silence was excruciating. Thankfully Trip broke it.

"Sir, they've finished now, you can, well, yell if you want to." Trip said.

"Why would I yell? Of course I'm disappointed that you never told me Malcolm, but you're no longer part of this organisation."

"No sir."

"Then I have nothing to yell about, to you anyway. Except the fact you came over here without permission." He added.

"Sorry sir, I just, well I wanted to come and see some of my friends who are over here." Malcolm said quietly.

"Fair enough, but you should have asked permission."

"Yes sir."

"Well then, now that's all cleared up" Trip said sitting up and clapping his hands together "Captain would you like to meet Kate?"

"By all means."

"Before you say-" he paused with confusion. "Hang on a sec-"

"What?"

"I just didn't think you would...never mind. C'mon I'll give you the tour while you're here."


	16. Problems

"Sir, with all due respect, what are ya doing here?"

"Getting the tour." Archer replied as they walked down a dimly lit corridor on the Endeavour.

Malcolm had mumbled something about getting a look at the armoury and had slipped away. Ensign James had followed a few minutes later, saying Malcolm might find the temptation to blow something up hard to fight without someone watching over him.

"You know what I mean sir, shouldn't you be trying to put us all in the brig, or at the very least doing your best to ignore us?"

"And shouldn't you have stopped calling me sir?"

Trip stopped and learnt against the wall. Crossing his arms he gave Archer a look that clearly said "Seriously."

"I just, guess I'm hoping it'll all disappear, that it's a dream or something."

"You're not the only one." Trip mumbled.

"So you're just as unhappy with all this as me."

"Nah, I wouldn't say that, it's just...I don't know Cap'n. I mean it's great to be back here, and see everyone 'n' all but Enterprise is my home now you know?" he said unhappily "Oh and to be honest sir, I'm slightly worried about what you're gonna' do without me." He smirked.

"Well yeah, there is that..." Archer played along.

"Knowing Hess she'll probably paint the engine fluorescent pink or somethin'." Trip said..

"She's not that bad is she?"

"No sir." he smiled.

The comm. sounded. "Security to the Captain." Trip pressed the button on the wall next to him.

"Tucker."

"Sir, we may have a problem."

* * *

"So is the armoury up to scratch?" Jennifer asked.

"I guess." Malcolm replied with a smile. "It didn't take much damage then?"

"No apparently not." She replied.

Malcolm fiddled with the cuff of his uniform in the uncomfortable silence that followed. "So." They both said finally.

"Want ta' go get something to eat?" Jennifer asked.

"Erm," _Not really, but then again_ "Yeah sure."

"Great." She said. "Although, I don't know if they'll be much there."

"I'm sure they'll be something."

"K, lets pick up the pace, if we stay in one place too long we'll get roped into doing something." She said linking her arm through his and gently pulling him into a faster pace. He laughed.

"You're probably right."

* * *

Trip stood outside the brig. _The busted open brig_ , where two of his security officers had just been taken from to the infirmary.

"Sorry sir, we don't know how they escaped." The young crewman said regretfully.

"Well Crewman" Trip began, his voice filled with frustration. "I should imagine you missed something when you searched them, and then I would guess they used that something to BLOW A DAMN HOLE IN THE HOLDING CELL!" he yelled. Closing his eyes he took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Sorry Jason I'm a little stressed out at the moment."

"Yes sir."

"Right, we need to get some search parties together, and some engineers down here." Trip said looking towards the mess in the brig through the open door.

"There's an engineering team on its way now sir."

"Great. OK, you Greg and Em with me, and Rose and Chris with Jen."

"Yes sir, I'll contact them now." He said and moved back inside the brig and over to an intact console.

Trip turned to Archer who'd been standing quietly to the side of him. "Sorry sir looks like the rest of the tour is going to have to wait."

"No problem, do you mind if I ask what exactly is going on?" he asked.

"Well, you know the distress call Enterprise picked up a few days ago." He nodded. "Well that ship belonged to the aliens we traded with" he paused at the look on Archers face "fine, shot and stole from. Jen and I sent a message to the Endeavour and they took them in so you guys wouldn't find them."

Archer nodded, then comprehension dawned and he looked Trip square in the face. "An encrypted message?"

"Yeah."

"For crying out loud! I can't believe you'd do that to your own ship! If we ever get out of here you get whoever designed that thing over there to get rid of it."

"Yes sir, it'll be top of my list of things to do." He said quickly.

"Your, you? YOU KNEW HOW TO FIX IT ALL ALONG?" Archer yelled.

"Yes sir, and I'm sorry, I was planning to slowly filter it out of the system, but I never got the chance did I?" Archer opened his mouth to continue but Trip cut him off. "Look sir, I'd love to continue this conversation, but I've got a search party to lead. If I were you I'd get back to Enterprise and tighten security, they've probably seen us working together, if they could blow a hole that big in there, then I'm sure they're capable of a lot more." And with that he strode off purposefully down the corridor.

* * *

Malcolm stood aside as Trip gave orders to the two search parties, he certainly was in full captain mode. Trip gave the order to move out and turned round to follow when Malcolm called out to him.

"Trip wait!"

"Yeah Malcolm." He said distractedly.

"Mind if I join you?" he asked.

"Sure that'd be great." Trip smiled at him. "You can go with Jen's team, she has one man less than me anyway."

"Great, see you later then." He said and began walking in the direction Jennifer and her team had gone. "Last one to catch an alien is a rotten egg." He yelled over his shoulder.


	17. Anomalous Energy Signatures

Malcolm cringed as Chris trod on a twig which snapped, giving away their position. He saw Jennifer's head turn towards the noise and upon seeing Chris she rolled her eyes, Malcolm laughed inwardly. She gave the signal for him to move up front. Crouching down beside her he gave her an inquisitive look.

Leaning closer to him she whispered, "They've moved away, must've heard us." she said sarcastically "Anyway they're closer to Trip's team now."

"So you want to, give up?" he asked her.

"Well yeah I suppose, Trip can handle them now. But I've picked up an energy signature on my scanner." He raised an eyebrow. "About two clicks in that direction." She pointed straight ahead of them. Malcolm scanned the area, slightly downhill, not too dense plant life, nothing they couldn't handle. He gave her a quick nod to show that he agreed.

She turned round to face Emma and Chris who were covering their six. "I want you two to stay put, incase the Captain's team need back up, or the aliens retreat back in this direction."

"Yes ma'am." Emma responded. "Where are you going Commander?" she asked.

"To check out this power signature." Jennifer responded, already with her back to them. Malcolm nodded his goodbye's and followed Jennifer through the undergrowth.

* * *

Usually Malcolm would enjoy a good walk. Two kilometres? Nothing to him, but this walk had reminded him it had been a long time since he'd got any sleep, and he was exhausted.

"Jen!" he called. She turned round to face him. "Can we take a break?" he asked.

"Sure."

"Thanks." He said slumping to the floor in a rather undignified heap, which caused her to laugh. Sending her the death stare, he fumbled for the bottle of water fastened to his belt, and took a long drink from it. While he was drinking he felt Jennifer sit down next to him.

"It has been a while since I got any sleep." She said. "I guess you're the same?"

"Pretty much."

"Don't s'pose you've got any food?" she asked.

"No, sorry. We never did get to the mess hall did we?" She shook her head sadly.

"I'm starving."

"You never know, maybe this power signature is from a food replicator." He said dryly. She moved slightly and he felt her head rest lightly against his shoulder.

"Ya never know." She said.

"So..." he said searching for a topic of conversation "I guess you'll be staying here then."

"Here? Hell no! Too many trees."

"Ha bloody ha. You know what I mean, onboard the Endeavour, with Trip" He clarified.

"Well I was planning to. I miss Kate a lot, and it'll be great to be able to see her every day." He nodded with understanding. "But with Trip? I don't think so."

"What do you mean?" he asked curiously.

"Well...I've had an idea." She said cryptically. He turned his head slightly to look at her.

"I'm listening."


	18. Truth Or Dare

"James to Tucker." Jennifer, fed up with waiting, had decided to break 'radio' silence.

"Tucker." Came the reply.

"What's going on? You got 'em?" she asked quickly.

"Yeah we got 'em, we told them we're gonna' let 'em go as soon as we get of this damn rock." He said.

Smiling Jennifer replied. "Good."

"So what've you and Malcolm been up ta'?" Trip asked, there was no mistaking the double meaning of his question. Malcolm shifted uncomfortably next to Jennifer.

"Tracking this energy signature. Didn't Emma and Chris tell you?" she asked, obviously ignoring his double entendre.

"Sure y'are." He replied sceptically. Malcolm could almost picture the smug all knowing smirk on his face, if only he was close enough to wipe it off, with his fist.

"Yeah, anyway, we found it. But there's a lock of some kind, with what looks like a keypad next to it." She told him.

"Have you tried to figure it out?"

"Well yeah Trip, but it's a bit difficult, it's in a different language." Annoyance tinged her voice.

"Right, o' course. Maybe we could get Hoshi down there to help ya." He thought out loud.

"Is the Captain really going to let that happen?" Malcolm spoke this time.

"Well true I'm not his favourite person right now, but this device might have something to do with both crashes, mightn't it?" He didn't wait for an answer. "He can't ignore that."

"Do you want me to-?" Malcolm began.

"Nah Malcolm, I'll contact him, you two just stay put for now, take some scans or something." He said sarcastically.

"Yes sir." Jennifer said and then cut it before he could say anything else.

* * *

"Truth." Jennifer said. They sat opposite each other, legs crossed. Malcolm now deep in thought.

"Right I got it." He said eventually.

"Hit me."

"How the hell did you manage to get out of Gracie's?"

"Malcolm, you've gotta' be kiddin' me." She gave him a pleading look, which he ignored. "Fine." She sighed. "Trip came out to visit, he managed to sneak down to the ward, blew the door off the hinges, we ran for our lives, you get the idea."

"That was you? I heard about that on the news." She laughed.

"Yeah Malcolm that was me. Your turn." She grinned mischievously.

"Dare." He said, bracing himself. She shifted so she was kneeling, and her knees were now touching his legs. Leaning in close to him she whispered

"Kiss me." He looked at her incredulously for a second, then leaned closer to her. Taking the side of her face in his hand and stroking it gently he pulled her closer.

"Ahem." Malcolm turned sharply towards the direction from which the sound originated, he felt Jennifer do the same. Trip was standing looking at them with a smug look on his face, Hoshi and Archer stood just behind him. "We interruptin' anything?" Trip asked.

Malcolm pushed himself up off the ground and pulled Jennifer up too. Dusting himself off he replied. "Not at all."

"Mmmhhhmm." Malcolm resisted the urge to kick him where it would hurt.

"Hoshi, we can't make head nor tails of this thing, care to give us a hand?" he asked.

"My pleasure sir." Making her way forward she pulled out her translator and scanner and began.

* * *

Malcolm had resumed sitting on the ground and doing nothing. Trip sat on his right and the Captain was next to Trip. Jennifer was leaning on a tree a metre or two away, near Hoshi who was still working.

"So Malcolm." Trip began, Malcolm had the feeling he wasn't going to like what he was about to say. "What exactly are you intentions towards the mother of my daughter?" he asked with a raised eyebrow and half smirk.

_Ignore him, just ignore him. Ignore him..._

"Trip watch out, he's getting that murderous glint in his eye that he gets when someone brings food or drink into the armoury." Jennifer called.

"No Jen, I'd really like to know, it might affect my family." He continued.

_Just ignore him, it's not his fault he's a complete prick..._

"I mean what if Kate decided she likes you more than me?" Malcolm looked up and met Jennifer's eyes at this, she mouthed the words "Too easy." He smirked. Glancing to his far right, past Trip, he noted that the conversation was at least amusing the Captain.

"C'mon Mal, really, we all saw it..."

"We were playing Truth or Dare Trip." Jennifer told him.

"Truth or Dare? Malcolm? No way!" Trip said in disbelief.

"Are you kidding? Malcolm is the unbeaten champion of that game! No-one has ever beaten him." She told them. "Well until now that is." She added. Malcolm looked up.

"Excuse me?"

"You never completed your dare, you lose." She said with a smirk. Malcolm got up and walked towards her.

"That's not fair! We were..." he glanced around ". . interrupted."

"So? You still didn't complete the dare." She smirked. "Actually it was a double-" She got no further as Malcolm chose that time to complete his dare. Upon hearing a muffled gasp from her he pulled them closer together and deepened the kiss. It was only when he heard someone shuffling uncomfortably behind them that he realised where he was and pulled away.

"Fine." She said breathlessly "You win."


	19. Dinner Parties And Defence Strategies

Malcolm was in the mess area, which he had to admit looked pretty much like a bar with a few dining tables shoved in for good measure. Trip had cornered off an area so it was more private. Kate and Jennifer were sitting on the far side of the table to him. On his left was Trip's cousin Emma, then Trip himself. This left three spaces at the table. Just as Malcolm was about to ask three people entered the make-shift mess building answering his question.

Captain Archer was closely followed by a very curious looking Hoshi and to Malcolm's immense surprise, T'Pol. As they approached he stood. "Captain."

"Malcolm."

"Ensign, Sub-Commander." Hoshi gave him an engaging smile and T'Pol gave him a small nod.

"Now that everyone's here," Trip began as the newcomers took their seats. (Archer next to Kate and T'Pol beside him, Hoshi next to Trip.) "lets get to eatin' I'm starving!"

"I'll second that." Kate said.

Malcolm smiled and then muttered "Of course you would." She shot him an angry glance, which quickly disappeared when a steward brought the food to the table. He watched with a smile as she began piling food on her plate, roast potatoes, broccoli, chicken, parsnips, carrots, everything she could reach. Turning to his left he saw Trip doing the same thing and laughed. Trip looked up.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing." Malcolm said innocently. He heard Jennifer laugh as Trip frowned, but his attention was quickly drawn back to his plate.

After a few minutes of over-polite small talk Christopher Tate made a, in Malcolm's opinion thankful, interruption.

"Sorry to interrupt." He said, sounding anything but.

"Go ahead Chris." Trip said.

"We think we've figured out what's preventing us from starting up the engines, we were hoping you might come and take a look _sir_."

"Sure thing." He nodded to Emma, Kate and Jennifer. "Sorry bout this Cap'n but this could be the breakthrough we've been hoping for." Archer nodded.

"Commander may I join you?" Trip looked at T'Pol for a moment, a little surprised.

"I don't see why not. Hoshi?" He smiled.

"No thanks, engines aren't really my thing. But I could use a station to work on the scans I took of that machine we found earlier."

"Come on I find you somewhere." He said

"Erm, Trip, do you mind if I stay here? You guys don't need me if you're there." Jennifer asked. Trip looked as if he was about to argue, but she gave him a pleading look and he gave in.

"Whatever." He waved a hand in her direction and lead the way out, Hoshi, T'Pol, Kate and Emma followed.

Once they were out of earshot, Jennifer shifted closer to the captain, Malcolm also moved closer.

"Captain, I've been meaning to talk to you." She began. He gave her a wary look.

"Really?" he said shooting a glance Malcolm's way.

"Yes it's concerning, well the impending court-martials to be blunt."

"Yes?"

"Well I was thinking about how we should build up Trip's defence?"

"You've lost me." Archer told her. Malcolm smirked as she continued as if he hadn't spoken.

"Well obviously the fact that I used our daughter to black-mail him into taking a position aboard this ship is the pivotal point of his entire case." She said with a raised eye-brow, the corners of her mouth twitched slightly.

"You did what?" he asked disbelievingly.

"That's right." Malcolm said barely containing a grin. "I was a witness." Jennifer nodded enthusiastically. Archer looked from one to the other frowning, then he seemed to comprehend what was going on.

"So what you're saying is, he didn't really have a choice he was forced into it?" he asked.

"Exactly." Jennifer and Malcolm said simultaneously. Archer smiled.

"Then..." he trailed off.

"Exactly." Jennifer said.


	20. Putting Plans Into Motion

Malcolm stared blankly at the ceiling of the tent he was staying in. By the time the captain, Jennifer and himself had finished going through the details of Jennifer's plan it had been too late to head back to the Enterprise camp. Trip had temporary quarters set up for them. _Temporary was the word_ Malcolm thought as the wind blew against the flimsy side of the tent carrying the sounds of the night to his ears.

The trees rustled endlessly, the lake lapped at the shore in the distance, someone cursed...Malcolm sat bolt upright, glancing across he noted that the tents other occupants were still fast asleep, infact they were snoring. Well Hoshi and the Captain were anyway, T'Pol was, well she was breathing.

He swung his legs over the side of his bunk and crept closer to the entrance of the tent. Upon hearing rustling that was made by something more substantial than the wind he reached for his phase pistol (under his pillow) and raised it warily.

Carefully pulling back the tarpaulin he scanned the immediate area, his eyes already being accustom to the darkness from the tent. The clearing was empty, Malcolm frowned. He crept to the edge of the clearing and backed up against a tree scanning the area again, his frown deepened.

_SNAP_

Malcolm span round and came face to face with, "Jen," he breathed "you shouldn't sneak up on people like that, I might have shot you." She shrugged and stepped in front of him. She was so close he could feel the heat radiating off her.

"You can shoot me if you want, but I had other things in mind." She whispered. The darkness hid the smirk on her face but he knew it was there, and couldn't help himself from mirroring it.

* * *

"Jennifer!" Trip yelled as he ran across the camp towards her tent. "Jen!" he pulled the tarp back hurriedly and stopped abruptly when he entered.

"Argh." Jen moaned "It's not even six yet! Ever heard of sleeping in?" she irritably, but Trip wasn't listening.

"Mornin' Malcolm." Jennifer glanced over her shoulder at the slumbering Malcolm, who groaned, rolled over facing away from them and pulled the pillow over his head. Jennifer smirked.

"Was there something you wanted?" she asked him. He eyed her closely as she ruffled her hair and sat up. She was wearing a strappy black top and rather short shorts, it wasn't the first time he'd seen her in her night-wear, but that time she hadn't been lying next to his best friend..."Trip!" He snapped back to reality.

"Oh God, right! We got a message." He definitely had her attention now. "From the Resolution to be more specific, they're in the system and wondered if they could lend a hand, I told them not to enter orbit though and explained what happened." She looked at him for a second and then her face broke into a smile. Before he knew it she'd flung her arms around him.

"That's great." She exclaimed pulling back.

"Yeah I know. Wanna' get dressed and come down to help us with a plan?" he asked knowing full well the answer.

"I'll be two minutes." She said and began scrambling around the tent. Trip casually strode outside and waited.

Two minutes late he was still waiting. "Two minutes!" she called to him. Trip mumbled an almost incoherent 'Whatever' and went and leaned on the nearest tree.

Another two minutes later Trip spotted Captain Archer striding purposefully towards him. He stopped a foot in front of Trip. "Sir?"

"Trip." He said shortly in greeting. "You seen Malcolm? He's not in our tent." Trip shifted his weight on his feet.

"Erm, well, yeah, but I think he's asleep still." Archer raised an eyebrow and Trip cocked his head slightly in the direction of Jennifer's tent. Before he had time to put two and two together Jennifer came bounding out of the tent towards them. She had on a pair of loose fitting combat trousers and a plain sleeveless top. She was in the process of plaiting her hair.

"Aren't you gonna' get cold?" Trip asked her.

"Right, hang on." She told him and ran back to the tent. A few seconds later she returned with a jumper, this time Malcolm was following her. Archer shot Trip a glance as they came back towards them to which Trip shrugged.

"Ready." Jennifer breathed.

"Finally." Trip muttered. "C'mon then." He beckoned and they made their way to the command tent.

* * *

Trip was pacing up and down the command tent in front of Jennifer Archer and Malcolm. According to Trip he was waiting for something, although he didn't clarify what. Malcolm knew Jennifer knew, she looked almost as impatient as Trip did. Although he didn't know what they were sitting around waiting for, Malcolm too was getting a little restless. He began drumming his fingers on the side of his chair.

"Mal." Jen said irately giving him her trademark glare. He shrugged, and ceasing the tapping, leant back in his chair crossed his arm and put his head back and stared at the ceiling of the tent.

Ten minutes later and they were still sitting waiting, for what neither Malcolm or Archer knew. Despite many attempts to find out. Suddenly a screen at the back of the tent sprung to life emitting a beeping noise.

Jennifer stood up and smiled as Trip headed for the screen and begun pressing buttons. Suddenly the image of a woman, late thirties early forties, with straight blonde hair that was tied back neatly, filled the screen.

"Sir, Ma'am." She greeted Trip and Jennifer. "We've analysed the scans you gave us of that object, and the radiation you detected that was preventing you from restarting the engines."

"Radiation!" Archer exclaimed. "Is it dangerous?!" he demanded. The woman looked slightly unnerved, seemingly only just noticing the Captain's and Malcolm's uniforms. She sent a glance at Trip who nodded reassuringly.

"To our technology yes, but to people, no. We've not been able to detect any signs that it is damaging to the human physiology." She reassured the captain, who nodded thankfully. "We have not however been able to find a way to counteract it's effects."

"Meaning?" Jennifer asked.

"Meaning Ma'am that we cannot restart the Endeavour's engines with that radiation on the planet." She said, the tone of her voice didn't sound as disappointed as it should though.

"But?" Trip asked, also detecting the tone of her voice.

"The radiation is being emitted from the object you discovered."

"It is?" Trip asked.

"Yes." She replied.

"So all you need to do is blow it up." Malcolm added. The others turned to him with raised eyebrows, Jennifer was smirking. "What?! It's true, right?"

"Yes it is." The woman replied. "And you are? If you don't mind me asking?"

"Lieutenant Malcolm Reed, Startfleet." He added.

"Reed? Why do I recognise that name?" She inquired.

"Malcolm was among our numbers for about 3 months, a good few years back now." Jennifer told her. "But we seemed to have drifted off topic. So, blow it up."

"Yes, our thoughts exactly." The woman continued. "But our calculations indicated that the one device alone couldn't be emitting all the radiation, so we scanned for more. There are one hundred of them, all over the planet, we'll have to blow them all." She told them.

"So do it." Trip said sternly.

"Yes sir. But it would be better if you, all of you, were aboard your ships when we do, encase the combination of the explosions and the radiation, well aren't very pleasant."

"Understood Commander, begin with the ones near us, give us two hours to pack up."

"Yes sir. Resolution out." The screen went blank.

"Cap'n, Malcolm, you guys better get back and start getting people back onboard Enterprise."

"Right you are Trip." The Captain said. "I assume the Resolution is another ship."

"You can assume that if you want sir." Trip said evasively. "Look I've gotta' get things goin' ova' here. Jen go n' collect T'Pol n' Hoshi and transport them all back ta' Enterprise." He told her.

"Yes sir. C'mon, we got to move quickly." She told them, and headed out of the tent.


	21. Rescue

The four Starfleet officers stood on the transporter platform aboard the Endeavour.

"Ready?" Jennifer asked.

"Jen wait." Malcolm said. "How are we going to contact you to make sure everything's gone to plan?" he asked.

"You're right." She said and began rooting around in her pocket. She pulled out a resistance communicator and threw it to him. "For emergencies only." She warned him, though the corners of her mouth twitched slightly. The others exchanged glances but Archer only shook his head.

"Right." Malcolm said.

"Ready?" She repeated. They all nodded as she pressed a button on the console in front of her

* * *

The senior staff were all sitting at their stations on the bridge, all barring Trip that is. They had successfully got all the crew and equipment safely aboard the Enterprise in time. Now all they had to do was wait.

With the help of the Endeavour's engineers they had brought main power back online, and most of the ship's systems. Among the few that were still in-operational were the transporter, the engine and the weapons. Although this left them at a disadvantage it meant they could see what was going on outside, and polarise their hull plating if need be.

"According to Commander Tucker's time limit, they should be destroying the target's in one minute and eleven seconds." T'Pol informed them.

"Malcolm." The Captain turned to face him. "Polarise the hull plating." He ordered.

"Yes sir."

"Hoshi broadcast this shipwide." She nodded in acknowledgement. "All hands, brace for impact."

"Ten seconds, eight..."

"De ja vous." Archer muttered.

"...five, four, three, two, one." There was silence for a few seconds.

"Sir they've destroyed the targets, but there's a shock-wave, a big one." Malcolm had barely got the words out when the entire ship shook violently. The bridge staff held on tightly and managed to keep their seats.

"Reports coming in sir." Malcolm said. "I'm detecting, yes sir, one hundred explosions on the surface of the planet."

"So they did it." Archer said.

"It would appear so." T'Pol stated

Malcolm jumped slightly when he heard a beeping noise coming from his pocket. He unzipped it and pulled Jennifer's communicator out, pressing the button to activate it he answered, "Reed."

"Hey Malcolm." Came Jennifer's voice.

"Jen?"

"Yeah, look Mal, it didn't work."

"It, it what?"

"Pass the communicator to Hoshi, tell her to connect it to the main screen." Doing as he was told Malcolm walked across the bridge and passed it to her. She plugged it into her station and quickly pressed a few buttons, and Jennifer appeared on the screen. Giving them all a half smile she directed her attention to the captain.

"Sir, it didn't work."

"I think we've established that." he said shortly.

"Right. Well we successfully destroyed the machine things." Archer raised an eyebrow. "But the radiation that they had already emitted is still preventing us from starting up our engines."

"And?" Archer asked.

"And we're working on it." She said.

Malcolm, who was standing just behind Hoshi and leaning against the console against the wall, raised his hand slightly. "Jen." He said thoughtfully. "Couldn't the other ship, use their," he hesitated "'grappler' to pull us up out of the planet's atmosphere." He was sure she heard the quotation marks around the word grappler by the look on her face.

"That's an excellent idea Malcolm, and they can now enter orbit as the radiation doesn't reach that far anymore. Great, I'll pass the idea along to Trip, once we're up, we'll use both ship's..." she paused "...grappler's to pull Enterprise up."

"You'll contact us before you do that right?" Archer asked her.

"Of course, talk to you soon." And with that she cut the transmission.

* * *

Archer had retreated to his ready room, Malcolm wasn't surprised, he probably wanted to do some pacing in private. There wasn't much to do on the bridge but sit and wait, so that was exactly what they were doing.

Malcolm leaned on his station and put his head in his hands. He ran his hands through his hair then leaned backwards.

"Lieutenant, are you feeling well?" T'Pol asked.

"A little tired."

"Erm, sir." Hoshi said timidly.

"I think this message is for you." She said. Frowning he made his way over to Hoshi's station, and saw a message on the screen.

_I SHOULD THINK SO TOO._

"It would appear Miss. James is listening in on us." He said with a smirk.

_THAT'S RIGHT HONEY._

Hoshi looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. "How's she doing that?" she asked.

"I don't know exactly. But you've got her comm. unit hooked up to the computer, she can probably tap into any system on the ship."

"That's highly unlikely Lieutenant." T'Pol said.

"I wouldn't put anything past her."

_CLEVER BOY._

Malcolm rolled his eyes and turned round to head back to his station, when a voice came from the unit. "Hang on." Malcolm turned round and the view screen came to life. "We're in orbit, it worked." She smiled.

"Hoshi . ." Malcolm began.

"Yes sir." she said, pressing a button on her station. "Captain Archer to the bridge." Seconds later he emerged from his ready room. He raised an inquisitive eyebrow at Jennifer.

"Ready?" she asked.

"As we'll ever be." He responded.

"Don't worry sir, we'll make sure it's a smooth ride."

"I'm sure you will." He said taking his seat.

"You can start up your engines as soon as you've left the atmosphere." He nodded his acknowledgement. "James out."

Malcolm began to make his way back over to his seat, when the ship began to move with a jolt. Grabbing a hand rail he pulled himself into his seat.

"I didn't feel any grappler hits" Archer said in puzzlement.

"We aren't detecting any." Malcolm told him.

"Captain." T'Pol said. "It's a tractor beam."

"They have a tractor beam?!" Archer asked, to no-one inparticular, he received a response nevertheless.

"It would appear so." T'Pol stated coolly.

"Sir, they've pulled us out of the atmosphere." Travis said.

"Start up the engines."

"They're online, impulse and warp."

"Sir." Malcolm said quickly. "I'm picking up a ship, its power signatures match the radiation emitters on the surface sir."


	22. Blowing Stuff Up

"You've got to be kidding me." Archer muttered.

"No sir, they just emerged from the opposite side of the planet." Malcolm confirmed.

"Damn it." Archer cursed.

"Yes sir."

"Sir incoming message." Hoshi said. "It's the Endeavour sir."

"Put 'em through."

The screen filled with an image of a very disgruntled looking Trip. "You may've noticed that we've got some company sir." he sighed running his hand through his hair. Jennifer stood on his right slightly behind him.

"Yes we had. Do we have a plan?" Archer asked with the air of someone who was bracing himself for an unwanted answer.

"Ah, well we were, em thinking about something along the lines ofâ€”" Jennifer cut him off.

"Blowing them to hell, sir." She said with a smirk and a wink a Malcolm.

"Sounds good to me." Malcolm responded. "Sir?" The Captain nodded his ascent with a slight smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"Do we have enough fire power to though?" Archer asked.

"More than enough." Trip said with a knowing smile. Archer merely raised an eyebrow.

"Sir, the ship has charged their weapons." Malcolm warned

Trip directed his attention to someone off-screen on the Endeavour's bridge. "Open a channel to the others, split screen." He said. A few seconds later the images of two other people joined Trip on the screen. Both clad in Resistance uniforms, one being the woman Trip had spoken to before, the other a brown-haired man, mid-thirties although his eyes seemed to be a lot older. Both nodded their greetings to the others.

Trip spoke again. "Lock all weapons on the enemy ship's engines, fire on my signal." He said. Two 'Yes sir's' were heard from the others. "That goes for you too Malcolm." He added with a smile. Malcolm nodded his ascent and looked at the captain who too nodded.

"Fire." And they did.

There was a blinding flash of light as the ship was hit from all directions with the collected force of the four ship's arsenal's. Seconds later Enterprise was shaken violently by the enormous shock wave. As the explosion dispersed the bridge crew focused their attention on the area of space where the ship had been, where now not even any debris remained; you would have never known there was a ship there.

"The ship was successfully destroyed Captain." Malcolm reported, and over the comm. they heard Jen and Trip speak simultaneously.

"No kidding."


	23. Interrogation And Punishment

The Captain hadn't been that happy when he'd found about the other resistance ship, but he calmed down, almost now, to Malcolm's relief. Malcolm had begun to wonder if the captain would want to go through with their plan after all this, but he'd come to Malcolm about a half hour after they'd blown the alien ship to hell ::smirks:: asking Malcolm to finish sorting out the details, and he had. Jennifer and Trip were due to arrive for 'dinner' in about five minutes.

Malcolm leaned against the wall next to the docking port and felt the ship shudder as the Endeavour docked. The Captain came purposefully striding down the corridor and Malcolm straightened up and faced him as he came to a stop.

"Malcolm." He nodded.

"Sir." Malcolm turned to the panel on the wall and pressed a few buttons. The door slid open to reveal a very docile looking Trip and Jennifer, who looked like she was permanently trying to suppress a grin. She gave Malcolm a small smile before turning her attention to the captain.

"Captain." She nodded and smiled to him.

"Ensign, Commander." He said and looked at them sombrely. He gave Malcolm a discreet nod and Malcolm pressed the comm. button on the wall.

"Security team move in." he said.

"What?!" Trip said alarmed as two security personnel came from round the corner and pointed their phase pistols at his head. "Cap'n come on!"

"Sorry Trip." He said. "It's for the best."

"Like hell it is!" Trip exclaimed as the two security staff took and arm each and lead him away down the corridor.

"Ensign." Malcolm smirked and gestured with his arm for her to follow the others down the corridor. "If you would."

"Of course Lieutenant." She smiled. As Malcolm turned to follow out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Captain shake his head and return the way he came.

* * *

Malcolm was having a good day, well as good as they got for him anyway. He had the pleasure of arresting two of his close friends earlier in the day, and now had the great pleasure of interrogating them both. Life was good.

To be honest the 'interrogation' was really only for fun, he would be getting Jen's confession later, he just wanted to make them sweat a little. The Captain, surprisingly enough hadn't had any objections, but then again these two had betrayed him and one was his best friend.

And so Malcolm Reed walked along the corridor towards the makeshift interrogation room with a spring in his step and a contented, almost happy look on his face. His buoyancy soon sank away though when he saw the Captain waiting for him outside the interrogation room.

"Sir? I was under the impression I would be conducting the questioning?"

"You will be Malcolm don't you worry, I just thought I'd...observe." He smirked.

"Not revelling in other people's misery I hope sir?" Malcolm asked while stepping forward and opening the door with the security code.

"Not at all Malcolm, just thought it would be helpful to have some extra re-enforcement's." The captain smiled.

"If you say so sir. After you."

* * *

It was Trip's turn. Malcolm had told him they'd already questioned Jennifer, and now he was up. Sitting twiddling his thumbs waiting for Malcolm to arrive Trip wondered where things had gone so wrong, he also wondered why the Endeavour hadn't got them out yet, they were more than capable. Not that Trip particularly wanted to leave Enterprise for good, but if he stayed he was sure to be court-martialled and so wouldn't be able to remain on the Enterprise anyway, so he might as well return to the Endeavour. Yeah, it was the right thing to do, and he'd get to see Kate every day, _definitely the right thing._

So this interrogation was pointless then wasn't it? So he might as well have some fun...

As the door slid open and Malcolm and the Captain entered, Trip gave them a warm smile and sat up a bit. "Captain! Malcolm! How nice of ya ta' grace me with your presence." He smirked as Malcolm and the Captain exchanged a puzzled look, and when they turned to face him again smiled innocently.

"Commander Charles Tucker." Malcolm began, but Trip cleared his throat and held up three fingers "the third." He added. "You are accused of working for a secret organisation that opposes Starfleet ideals and regulations in every way."

"Hey!" Trip exclaimed. "Not true, not in every way."

"Fair enough, I'll remove the last three words." Malcolm said, expression of seriousness but the sparkle of amusement in his eyes gave him away, Trip raised an eyebrow. "May I continue?"

"Please."

"You are accused of sabotaging a Starfleet vessel and deliberately deceiving your superior officers and the rest of the crew to cover up your involvement. Furthermore you have spoken in a manner that could be perceived as insubordination to your commanding officer." Trip smirked.

"For that I apologise sir, if you perceived anything I said as being insubordinate I'm sorry it wasn't intended as such." Trip said formally, without a trace of his customary southern drawl. The Captain looked as if he wanted to smile.

"Apology accepted, that can be removed from the record Lieutenant."

"Yes sir. Now such evidence clearly means you will be subject to a court-martial" Malcolm paused "in normal circumstances."

"Huh?" Trip said in confusion.

"However after hearing the testimony of Ensign Jennifer James we are willing to be more lenient with the punishment." Malcolm finished.

"As punishment you will be confined to your quarters for one week, and will be suspended from normal duty for a further week." The Captain said to a now completely perplexed Trip. "During that week you will be assigned to help Doctor Phlox in sickbay, if he runs out of tasks to occupy you, you will be under the supervision of Lieutenant Reed who will find you suitable tasks to occupy yourself I'm sure." He said with a small smile and a glance to Malcolm who smirked. "Furthermore your rank will be reduced from Commander to Lieutenant Commander, and if anything like this happens again, be sure you'll be out of here in a flash, understood?"

"Yes, yes sir." Trip stammered.

"Lieutenant if you would escort Commander Tucker to his quarters."

"Sir?"

"Yes Malcolm."

"Don't you mean Lieutenant Commander Tucker?"

"That's rather a mouthful don't you think?" Archer asked with a smile.

"Yes sir." Malcolm responded, and lead Trip towards the door.

When they reached Trip's quarters Malcolm opened the door and waited for Trip to enter. Trip turned round to face him when he was in the doorway, the shocked look of disbelief still on his face. "Hell Malcolm," he said "you and Jen sure do have some interesting ideas. What on earth did she say?"

With a smirk Malcolm reached for the panel. "Goodnight sir." he said and locked the door.


	24. Goodbyes

"I really am in awe of my own genius sometimes." Malcolm commented airily.

"Ahem. I think I played a small part thank you very much." Jennifer replied from his side.

"A very small part." Malcolm said, earning him a scowl and a smack on the arm. "Ouch!"

"Ever so sorry."

"Mmmhmm."

They stopped outside Trip's quarters and Malcolm entered the code on the door which opened. "Commander." He called and walked in, Jennifer remained in the doorway.

Trip was sitting at his desk, wearing black jeans and a navy short sleeved shirt, reading from the screen. He turned to face them and raised and eyebrow. "Malcolm?"

"If you would follow me please?" Malcolm asked politely.

"Why?" Trip queried suspiciously.

"Just because." Jen voiced from the doorway. Trip still eyed them warily.

"Am I going to have to call for a security team?" Malcolm asked. Trip sighed and got up from the chair.

"Lead the way then." He said following them into the corridor. "Where we goin' anyway?"

"Conference room." Malcolm replied shortly.

"What?! Why?" he asked in confusion.

"Just shut-up and keep walking." Jen said prodding him in the side.

* * *

Jennifer walked in silence the rest of the way. Which was, as Trip would have said if he wasn't slightly distracted, extremely unusual. As they stopped and Malcolm opened the door she felt her heart sink the rest of the way and hit the bottom of her stomach with a thud.

Trip's eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw Kate sitting at the table. He quickly made it across the room to her and pulled her into a hug.

"Why are ya here?" he asked her shoulder. Pulling away slightly she answered.

"To say goodbye." She said quietly and looked downcast. Trip nudged her chin gently with his hand so she was looking at him directly.

"Sound's like I'm dyin' or somethin'." He joked, making her smile. She pulled him into another hug.

"I'll miss ya'."

"Damn straight you will." He smiled sadly. "Don't forget to write, I want regular updates on what that idiot Chris is doing with my ship."

"Yessir." She stood to attention.

Jennifer watched sadly from Malcolm's side, she gave him a grateful smile when he gave her hand a gentle squeeze. Clearing her throat she stepped forward. "That won't be necessary sir, I'll keep him in line."

"You, you will? But Jen you're...going back aren't you?" He asked with comprehension.

"Nothing gets past you Charlie boy." He rolled his eyes but pulled her into a hug anyway.

"See ya' around Jen."

"Lets hope not." She responded to which he nodded.

"So what's the pl-" he got no further as Jen pulled out a phase pistol and shot him square in the chest.

"Damn that felt good." She muttered, Kate laughed. Stepping over Trip's unconscious form she gave Malcolm a hug then turned back towards Jen.

"See you in a minute mum?" she asked with smirk.

"Yeah I'll be there soon." Jen responded as she too stepped over Trip to where Malcolm stood. She watched as her daughter slowly dematerialised and then turned to Malcolm.

"So..." she said taking a step closer to him. He smirked, taking a step closer he slid an arm round her waist and pulled her close to him.

"So?"

Smiling she kissed him softly on the lips and then pulled him to her in a hug. "I'll miss you Malcolm." She whispered into his shoulder.

"I'll miss you to." She heard him respond. Pulling back slightly she smirked.

"Well who wouldn't?" she kissed him on the cheek and took a clear step back. "Take care of yourself Malcolm."

"You too." He smiled.

"And keep an eye on Trip, you know what he's like." She raised the phase pistol and aimed it at him.

"I still don't see why you have to shoot us." He complained.

"To make it look authentic." She smiled. "And it's fun." She added. Malcolm rolled his eyes just before he was caught in the chest and fell to the floor with a soft thud.

"James to Endeavour, one to transport." She spoke into her communicator.

"See y'around guys." She said sadly.


	25. Epilogue

It'd been 2 days since Jennifer had made her 'great escape'. Unfortunately the Endeavour had jumped straight to warp as soon as Jennifer was aboard, and due to some new technology, origins unknown, although Malcolm had a pretty good idea, they'd managed to mask they're warp trail making it almost impossible to track. Rather than wasting important 'exploration time' Captain Archer had felt it was better to leave them to it _for now_ , he stressed those particular words.

All the reports had been filed away and in the Captain's words they were now all to put this incident behind them, light years behind them.

Malcolm was currently picking through his dinner lazily with his fork, staring a whole through the padd. On the table in front of him. He consequently didn't notice Trip and Travis sit themselves at his table, he didn't even notice their indiscreet attempt to get his attention by clearing their throats, it was only when Trip gave him a swift kick in the leg that the pain brought him back to reality.

"OW! Son of aâ€”"

"Sorry Mal, you zoned out on us then." Trip apologised.

"My apologies." Malcolm said insincerely.

"Sure." Trip muttered.

"So what had your mind so occupied?" Travis answered as he began to dig in to his meal.

"I'll give you three guesses." Trip said. Malcolm scowled as Travis smirked. "I still can't believe that cow shot me!" Trip said angrily.

" _Us_ , shot _us_."

"Yeah but its not like you didn't get anything to make up for it." Trip said giving Malcolm a knowing look.

"What on earth are you talking about?" Malcolm said tersely.

"I woke up a good minute before you Malcolm, you're not telling me you wear lipstick now are ya'?" Travis raised and eyebrow.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Malcolm said, however the smile tugging at the corners of his mouth gave him away, causing Travis and Trip to laugh.

"Exactly my point." Trip said inbetween laughs. The three men lapsed into a comfortable silence as they ate their meals.

"I still can't believe she shot me."


End file.
